Lester placed the snake in a toolbox in the bed of his truck and told his wife they needed to get to a hospital. They planned to meet an ambulance at their home in Turley but Roberta Lester said it was too late to save her husband.

“He was talking and his head dropped, and I think that was it,” the widow told the World.

Medical personnel in the ambulance and at St. John Medical Center unsuccessfully tried to revive Lester. His wife said doctors attributed the death to a combination of the venom and an underlying heart condition.